From the right which the Government claims to inheritances, and the ruinous fines paid on readmission, those who have landed property frequently make this appropriation to the mosque, and their lands become part of the wakf of that establishment. The Government then has no farther claim on them. But the appropriator takes care, at the same time, that his next heir, or if a minor, trustees on his behalf, under the name of Mutwâlli, shall receive the rents, and so on, as long as any heirs remain in the family. The individual continues in the secure receipt of his income, paying however annually a small proportion of it to the administrators of the mosque.
It will hence be observed, that in Egypt, a large proportion of the tenants and cultivators hold either of the Government, or the procurators of the mosques. To the personal ease of the cultivator, and the general good of the whole, it is of little consequence which. For there is one circumstance common to them both, viz. that their lands, becoming unoccupied, are never let but on terms ruinous to the tenant. For as there is a number of bidders, and the managers of them are exorbitant in their demands, the tenant becomes accessory to his own misery, by engaging to pay the owner so large a portion of the product, that his profits are absolutely insignificant.
These contracts are of various forms, but commonly made for a given number of years, or for life, in the nature of leases. The occupier, assisted by his family, is the cultivator; and in the operations of husbandry scarcely requires any other aid. When the Nile rises, those who are employed to water the fields are commonly hired labourers. Volney[13] has said generally, that the peasants of Egypt are hired labourers. It will hence be seen to how small a portion of them those terms can be properly applied.
The hired servants of the great are paid chiefly by having their food provided for them, and receiving occasionally presents of clothes; excepting what they obtain by extortion, opportunities of which are given even to the lowest menial, by the system of terror established in the country.
The tenant of land commonly holds no more than he and his family can cultivate, and gather the produce of. Yet he is far from being a villain, attached to the soil, having always the power of quitting his farm to obtain another in a different quarter. It however often happens, that families are connected with a particular spot for a great length of time. I have met with persons of that description at Ben-Ali near Assiût, whose ancestors of the fifth remove had resided in the same spot. “I used to smoke tobacco,” (said one of them, a very old man,) “but it cost me almost a para a-day, and times are always growing worse, so now I am satisfied with a dry reed, till the master (ربنا) free me from these embarrassments.”
I shall now return to the topography and population of this great city. It has been originally walled, but at present only fragments remain. The dimensions of the city from North to South[14] greatly exceed those from East to West. There are several open spaces, but the houses, generally speaking, are close to each other. The Chalige, which pierces the city from North to South, commencing near Misr-el-Attiké, assumes various aspects, according to the season of the year. Its most permanent character is that of a dunghill, a public receptacle for all kinds of offal. Before the rise of the Nile, it is cleaned, and becomes a street; it is then filled by the increase of the river, and exhibits the appearance of a canal covered with boats.
Here it may be remarked in general concerning that noble river, that its rise seems to remain the same as in the most antient times, namely, sixteen cubits, or twenty-four feet in perpendicular height. The medium increase is nearly four inches a-day; and takes place, as is well known, from the end of June to the beginning of September, from which period to the following solstice it is gradually falling, again to rise. Those versed in antient astronomy know, that the rise of the river was indicated by the heliacal rising of Sirius, or the Dogstar, a few mornings before; whence that star was denominated, as resembling the fidelity of a dog, in warning his master to remove his effects from the ravages of the stream. It is asserted that Sihor, or Sihir, is an antient name of the Nile, as well as the Indus, whence Siris, corruptly Sirius, another appellation of the most brilliant of all the fixed stars.
Mr. Gray’s well-known description of Egypt, as immersed under the influx of the Nile, is exquisitely poetical, but far from just. In Upper Egypt the river is confined by high banks, which prevent any inundation into the adjacent country. This is also the case in Lower Egypt, except at the extremities of the Delta, where the Nile is never more than a few feet below the surface of the ground, and where inundation of course takes place. But the country, as may be expected, is without habitations. The fertility of Egypt arises from human art. The lands near the river are watered by machines; and if they extend to any width, canals have been cut. The soil in general is so rich as to require no manure. It is a pure black mould, free from stones, and of a very tenacious and unctuous nature. When left uncultivated, I have observed fissures, arising from the extreme heat, of which a spear of six feet could not reach the bottom.
The greatest breadth of this majestic river may be computed at two thousand feet, or about a third of a mile. Its motion is even slower than that of the Thames, and does not exceed three miles an hour. The water is always muddy: in April and May, when it is clearest, it has still a cloudy hue. When it overflows, the colour is a dirty red. It is replete with a variety of fish; those I have chiefly observed are, Bûlti, Labrus Niloticus; Kelb-el-bahr; Farhôn; Charmût, a round fish about eight inches long, and said to be poisonous; Tabân-el-bahr, the eel, Muræna Anguilla; Nefâsh, apparently a species of salmon, and found of very large size. It seems not now determinable of what species, or whether of any now known, was the fish called Oxyrynchus, so famous in the antiquities of Egypt. D’Anville says it is the one now called Kesher. The best is the Bûlti, somewhat like the white trout, but sometimes attaining such a size as to weigh fifty pounds. Except good and large eels, none of the fish have a strict similitude of the European.
From Kâhira to Assûan, a distance of about three hundred and sixty miles, the banks, except where rocky, present no natural plant; they somewhat resemble the steps of stairs, and are sown with all sorts of esculent vegetables, chiefly that useful plant the Bamea. It grows to a little more than three feet in height, with leaves like those of the currant-bush; and produces oblong aculeated pods, which lend a pleasant flavour to the repast.